pynchon-l-digest V2 #1864

[Doug Millison]

Letters from Pynchon to his then-agent, Candida Donadio, in the 60s 
would seem to indicate that he was working on several novels 
simultaneously, one of which might have been M&D.  Donadio sold the 
letters to a collector (Carter Burden, I believe, although I may not 
have the name quite right) who donated them to the Morgan Library in 
NYC a few years ago.  This received much news coverage in the NY 
Times (whose reporter Mel Gussow broke the story I think), Salon.com, 
and many other publications at that time.

A case might be made from internal evidence in the novels themselves. 
I've argued on Pynchon-L  that the many textual links that are 
obvious between GR, Vineland, and M&D might support the notion that 
Pynchon was working on them, or parts of them, at the same time; this 
is a concept that has been discussed in at least one recent Pynchon 
Notes article, too. It's also widely accepted that Pynchon wrote 
COL49 while he was working on GR; I haven't read it as closely with 
an eye to its links to the other novels, but I'm sure they're there, 
too.


Good luck,
Doug
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